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Azure OpenAI vs IBM Watson Machine Learning comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 4, 2024

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Azure OpenAI
Ranking in AI Development Platforms
2nd
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
34
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
IBM Watson Machine Learning
Ranking in AI Development Platforms
13th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
7
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the AI Development Platforms category, the mindshare of Azure OpenAI is 10.3%, down from 19.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM Watson Machine Learning is 1.9%, down from 2.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
AI Development Platforms
 

Featured Reviews

Rafael Keller - PeerSpot reviewer
Creates effective scheduling agents with responsive AI capabilities
I am using it to create agents to schedule appointments for clinics and professionals in general. It serves both small and major companies. The primary use case involves creating agents Its ability to understand and respond well to queries, including language translation for clients, is…
Anurag Mayank - PeerSpot reviewer
A highly efficient solution that delivers the desired results to its users
I had not considered how the solution could be improved because I was focused on how it was helping me to solve my issues. If I consider how we want to use it in our organization, certain areas of improvement can be addressed. For instance, we want to use it with Generative AI, not like ChatGPT, but in a way intended for industrial use. It would be beneficial to incorporate more AI into the solution.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"The document intelligence feature has significantly aided in our operations, facilitating the creation of descriptive content."
"Our clients are interested in building knowledge bases, particularly in child welfare. In this domain, we focus on supporting caseworkers by compiling and organizing relevant information. This information is then stored in a database using a query. The database generates summaries and reminders for specific actions and even facilitates sending emails to parents or other relevant parties. The system's complexity is tailored to the specific needs of child welfare cases. Additionally, we're exploring opportunities to assist a healthcare organization. Specifically, we're working on streamlining the process of filling out forms required for insurance claims. This effort aims to ensure that hospitals can receive funding or payment for the care they provide."
"Azure's integration with OpenAI's GPT is beneficial as well, especially for text generation tasks."
"The product saves a lot of time."
"It's very powerful. It allows users to query our documents using natural language and receive answers in the same way. This makes our product information much more accessible than traditional keyword-based search."
"GPT was useful for our projects."
"The most valuable feature of Azure OpenAI stems from the GPT-3.5 models it provides to its users."
"OpenAI integrates seamlessly with the broader Microsoft Azure ecosystem, and that provides synergies with the other solutions. This integration makes it much easier to build solutions."
"It is has a lot of good features and we find the image classification very useful."
"I was particularly interested in trying the AutoML feature to see how it handles data and proposes new models. The variety of models it provides is impressive."
"We can enable and change developer productivity with artificial intelligence-recommended code based on natural language input or exciting source code."
"The solution is very valuable to our organization due to the fact that we can work on it as a workflow."
"Scalability-wise, I rate the solution ten out of ten."
"It has improved self-service and customer satisfaction."
"The most valuable aspect of the solution's the cost and human labor savings."
 

Cons

"The product features themselves are fine. However, with Microsoft scaling the service so much, the support structure needs to keep pace. When solving complex issues, the process of interacting with Microsoft can be quite time-consuming."
"The solution needs to accommodate smaller companies."
"Azure OpenAI should use more specific sources like academic articles because sometimes the source can't be found."
"Azure OpenAI is not available in all regions, and its technical support should be improved."
"I have found the tool unreliable in certain use cases. I aim to enhance the system's latency, particularly in responding to calls. Occasionally, calls don't respond, so I want to improve reliability."
"Azure could significantly benefit from including more LLM models apart from OpenAI, as I often need to switch clouds when a model doesn't meet my requirements."
"In the next release, they could enhance the product's features for even greater usability and efficiency."
"The dialogue manager needs to be improved."
"The supporting language is limited."
"In future releases, I would like to see a more flexible environment."
"They should add more GPU processing power to improve performance, especially when dealing with large amounts of data."
"Scaling is limited in some use cases. They need to make it easier to expand in all aspects."
"Sometimes training the model is difficult."
"If I consider how we want to use it in our organization, certain areas of improvement can be addressed. For instance, we want to use it with Generative AI, not like ChatGPT, but in a way intended for industrial use."
"Honestly, I haven't seen any comparative report that has run the same data through two different artificial intelligence or machine learning capabilities to get something out of it. I would love to see that."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The platform offers a flexible pricing model which depends on the features and capabilities we utilize."
"According to the negotiations taking place and the contract, there is a need to make either monthly or yearly payments to use the solution."
"The tool costs around 20 dollars a month."
"Azure OpenAI is a bit more expensive than other services."
"I rate the product pricing six out of ten."
"The cost is quite high and fixed."
"If you consider the long-term aspect of any project, Azure OpenAI is a costly solution."
"The pricing is acceptable, and it's delivering good value for the results and outcomes we need."
"I've only been using the free tier, but it's quite competitive on a service basis."
"The pricing model is good."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
13%
Computer Software Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Government
6%
University
13%
Computer Software Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Educational Organization
10%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Azure OpenAI?
The product is easy to integrate with our IT workflow.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Azure OpenAI?
In terms of pricing for Azure OpenAI, I would rate it as average compared to Gemini. Currently, Gemini is becoming increasingly popular, which prompts leadership to consider a switch primarily due ...
What needs improvement with Azure OpenAI?
While it is good, we sometimes encounter hallucination issues, which is a significant concern. We are changing the prompt and fine-tuning it, but we still face some inconsistent behavior. We have s...
What do you like most about IBM Watson Machine Learning?
I was particularly interested in trying the AutoML feature to see how it handles data and proposes new models. The variety of models it provides is impressive.
What needs improvement with IBM Watson Machine Learning?
Sometimes training the model is difficult. We need to have at least a few different components to evaluate and understand the behavior of different users to have a very, very high accuracy in the m...
 

Overview

Find out what your peers are saying about Azure OpenAI vs. IBM Watson Machine Learning and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
865,295 professionals have used our research since 2012.